The Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights, the letter states, "found no evidence of the University giving an automatic 'plus' for identifying as a particular race or national origin; nor did OCR find evidence of applicants given an automatic 'minus' for belonging to a particular race or national origin."

Rather, the investigation found, race was used as one part of a holistic review of student applicants.

Princeton had been under investigation by OCR for years, stemming from two federal complaints that the Ivy League university was discriminating on the basis of race.

"One claim came from a student originally from China who was waitlisted in 2006 and said students from other backgrounds with similar credentials got in," the Associated Press reports. "The other came from the parents of a student of Indian descent who was rejected in 2010; that claim asserted the university discriminated generally against Asian and Indian applicants."

Asian-American students may be at a distinct disadvantage when applying to highly competitive colleges, according to Sara Harberson, a former Ivy League admissions dean.

"For example, there's an expectation that Asian-Americans will be the highest test scorers and at the top of their class; anything less can become an easy reason for a denial," Harberson wrote in an op-ed in the Los Angeles Times in June. "In the end, holistic admissions can allow for a gray zone of bias at elite institutions, working against a group such as Asian Americans that excels in the black-and-white world of academic achievement."